Cleaning My Rifle

I have and shoot a .45cal Penn Long Rifle....I use Hoppe's #9 to clean it.
I read some where that this is not the right cleaner to use. So can anyone tell me what is the right cleaner???? I use Pyrodex

Jack is right, hot soapy water and a stiff bronze brush if it is really dirty. The Hoppes #9 is for smokeless powder firearms, not black powder or Pyrodex. Best to remove the barrel, stick the breech end in a bucket of hot water, dump some dish detergent down the barrel and run a bronze brush down it a few times to knock out the crud and then use a bore swab to pump water in and out of the nipple (or vent hole if flintlock) until the water runs clean. The pour boiling water down the barrel to rinse it out well. The barrel should then be super hot and will dry itself when stood on end. (Aussies use hairdryers, but then they also wear those odd hats and talk funny.) When it is dry, run an oily patch down the barrel to keep it from rusting.

If you use a petroleum based gun oil in the bore after cleaning you will need to swab it all out before you load it. If you use a vegetable based oil popping a cap is usually all you need to do. I usually fire a blank charge before loading just to make sure there's no oil left.

Hot soapy water and a brush or tight fitting jag and patch will do get the fouling out. Hoppes does make a black powder solvent, and on the occasions I have used it, it works pretty well. But you will go through a large batch of patches. I generally let the barrel air dry, heat of the water used to clean it generally make the tube hot enough to dry. then I run a greased patch down the barrel, and oil the outside. Past experience has taught me not to do this in the kitchen sink or the bath tub. I love the smell of black powder, my wife has other opinions!

At the black powder club that I used to belong to, several of the long time members used a solution of distilled water and Windex. Take a gallon of distilled water and pour out enough of it to be replaced with the contents of a bottle of Windex and there you have it. They all swore this was better than anything else they've tried.

those who beat their guns into plowshares, will plow for those who didn't

i use windex with lemon,however i use 777 powder which is water soluble.i also to what i call a max clean up using boiling soapy water and a mop.you must use heat gloves but it dries almost immediatly. old semperfi